STEPHEN RANDALL A/K/A STEVEN RANDALL, APPELLANT,
v.
KRISTINA RANDALL, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
In this appeal of a trial court's fee award in a family law dispute, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court's determination that appellate attorney's fees should be calculated based on a reasonable hourly rate for services rendered, without requiring consideration of the parties' financial ability or need.
The appellate court held that the trial court was required to assess reasonable fees for all services rendered on appeal without regard to the parties' respective financial ability and need or other Rosen factors, as the prior appellate mandate did not condition the fee award on such considerations.
[1] When an appellate court remands a case solely to fix the amount of attorney's fees for services rendered on appeal, the trial court is required to assess a reasonable fee…
[2] An appellate court's mandate to fix the amount of appellate attorney's fees limits the trial court's jurisdiction to that specific task.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“it was required to assess a reasonable fee for all the services rendered on appeal by the wife's counsel without regard to the parties' respective financial ability and need or any of the other factors stated in Rosen v. Rosen”
Establishes the core holding that trial courts must calculate reasonable fees based on services rendered when an appellate mandate simply remands to fix the amount without conditions
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThis case arose from a prior unsuccessful appeal by Randall (the former husband) in Randall v. Randall, 875 So.2d 667 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004). In that prio…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Attorney'S Fees On Appeal cases and more on FLexlaw
SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.
In a prior unsuccessful appeal by the appellant-former husband, Randall v. Randall, 875 So. 2d 667 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004) (table), this Court granted the appellee-wife’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs and “remanded to the trial court to fix amount.” Contrary to his primary contention on the present appeal from the resulting order below, we agree with the lower court that it was required to assess a reasonable fee for all the services rendered on appeal by the wife’s counsel without regard to the parties’ respective financial ability and need or any of the other factors stated in Rosen v. Rosen, 696 So. 2d 697 (Fla.1997).
See Young v. Hector, 884 So. 2d 1025, 1026 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004) (“[T]his Court granted the former husband’s motion for attorney’s fees, and remanded to the trial court to fix the amount of the fees.”); Bass v. State Farm Life Ins. Co., 649 So. 2d 924, 925 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995) (“This court’s mandate remanded the action to the trial court for the sole purpose of fixing the amount of Bass’ appellate attorneys fees. As such, the trial court followed this court’s mandate by only fixing the amount of appellate attorneys fees.”); Barbara Green, Cracking the Code: Interpreting and Enforcing the Appellate Court’s Decision and Mandate, 32 Stetson L.Rev. 393 (2003).
When the Court determines otherwise, its order says so. See Fischer v. Fischer, 882 So. 2d 435, 435 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004) (“[Former husband]’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs on appeal is remanded to the trial court. If the movant establishes his entitlement pursuant to section 61.16, Florida Statutes, and Rosen ..., the trial court is authorized to award the movant all or a portion of the reasonable appellate attorney’s fees.”); Reznik v. Reznik, 865 So. 2d 507 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (order granting appellate fees) (“Respondent’s motion for appellate attorneys’ fees is provisionally granted and remanded to the trial court to fix amount conditioned on a finding of the wife’s need and the husband’s ability to pay.”); Young v. Hector, 833 So. 2d 793, 795 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (“As to [the former husband’s] motion for appellate attorney’s fees, we remanded to the trial court. If [he] establishes his entitlement pursuant to section 61.16, Florida Statutes, and Rosen ..., the trial court is authorized to award him all or a portion of the reasonable appellate attorney’s fees.
This court concludes that the appeal by [the former husband] lacked merit, and therefore the trial court should give great weight to the factors set forth in Rosen.”); Solernou v. Solernou, 556 So. 2d 1144, 1144 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989) (“[W]e provisionally grant an award of costs to the wife, subject to the trial court’s conducting an evidentiary hearing to verify the ex-wife’s need and ex-husband’s ability to pay.”), cause dismissed, 564 So. 2d 488 (Fla.1990).
We also find no error or abuse of discretion in the amount of the fees and costs assessed below.
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Feder v. Feder, 41 So. 3d 234 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009)…s fee hearing, the former husband argued that he should not have to pay much, if any, of the former wife’s attorney’s fees. The trial court correctly ruled that the issue of entitlement had already been decided by this court. See Randall v. Randall, 930 So. 2d 840, 841 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006). The trial court conducted an evidentiary hearing and entered an attorney’s fee judgment. The former husband has appealed. The former husband asks this court to revisit its earlier order granting appellate attorney’s fees to…
-
Viscito v. Viscito, 225 So. 3d 959 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017)…conditional” grant of fees to consider first need and ability to pay, but the trial court would not hear argument on the issue as it was under the impression that it was only required to fix an amount. As this Court explained in Randall v. Randall, 930 So. 2d 840 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006), this Court may either grant appellate attorney’s fees and remand for the trial court to assess a reasonable fee,2 or provisionally grant appellate attorney’s fees and remand to establish entitlement under Rosen, but in either eve…
Authorities Cited
- Rosen v. Rosen, 696 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1997)
- Bass v. State Farm Life Ins. Co., 649 So. 2d 924 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)
- Randall v. Randall, 875 So. 2d 667 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004)
- Magdalena Sofia Solernou v. Solernou, 556 So. 2d 1144 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)
- Millan v. State, 833 So. 2d 793 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)
- Fischer v. Fischer, 882 So. 2d 435 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004)
- Young v. Hector, 884 So. 2d 1025 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004)